While on a European lecture tour in 1897, Mark Twain was introduced to news reports from the U.S. announcing his untimely (and inaccurate) death. His response: “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

Doomsday sayers have moved on from the creator of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn to the freelance revolution. Several articles published late last week breathlessly described a reduction over time in the number of individuals describing themselves as freelancers. New York Magazine proclaimed, “Maybe the Gig Economy Hasn’t Arrived Yet.” Bloomberg’s headline was similar: “The Triumph of the Gig Economy Is Postponed Yet Again.” As Bloomberg columnist Justin Fox put it: “(A)t a time like the present when regular jobs are readily available, people seem to be less enthusiastic about doing irregular ones.”

Both were responding to a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report that fewer workers were engaged in what BLS called “alternative work arrangements” in 2017 than in 2005. That sent reporters into a tizzy, wondering if freelancing was a powerful new trend after all, or merely a second choice when full-time employment was less available?

The answer, of course, is both. As Fox implies, there are a large number of people for whom freelancing is a temporary financial stopgap. But, that misses the bigger picture: the growth of freelancing as an affirmative career alternative to traditional employment for professionals. Steve King of Emergent Research estimates that there are 18 million full-time independent workers and another 22 million Americans who are part-time. But he offers a more interesting and nuanced perspective on the robustness of the freelance revolution. “Gig industry has clearly been growing over the last decade. It is permeating every sector of the economy. There are gig workers who are lawyers, doctors and other highly skilled professionals along with the commonly thought of Uber and Airbnb.”

Ben Casselman of the New York Times put a similar message this way: “The largest category of alternative workers, independent contractors in their 40s . . . earn about as much, on average, as standard employees. Nearly eight in 10 say they prefer being an independent contractor to being an employee. The picture looks different for on-call and temporary workers, who tend to be younger, earn less and rarely have access to employer-provided health or retirement benefits. They are also far more likely to say they would prefer traditional work.”

King and Casselman are on to something; the real story is how freelancing has expanded, matured and spread globally. In a recent post on Toptal’s Insights Blog, Michael Kearns and I wrote that the gig economy was a tale of two parallel economies: “In the gig economy, customers are provided with on-demand access to broadly available and undifferentiated services - the ease of access and low cost is the differentiator, not the talent who provides the service. In the talent economy, the customer is actually buying the skill and expertise of the talent - the platform is merely a “market maker” to paraphraseArun Sundararajanand other pundits, that reduces the inefficiency of traditional employment and staffing markets, and enables the discovery of talent that is otherwise invisible to the customer.”

So, let’s not mourn the death of the freelance revolution. It’s quite alive. Instead, we ought to celebrate the important but distinct trends that together constitute the gig and talent economies. Freelancing enables individuals an opportunity to earn income in between jobs, by moonlighting, and to generate income in pursue of their craft or other passion. Current economic conditions make it possible for these individuals to more easily find full-time work if they wish, and in all likelihood the experience of freelancing – managing one’s business – has helped them to learn planning, self-presentation and communication skills that will benefit them regardless of their path. And, for those eager to pursue a full-time career as an independent professional, freelancing provides a realistic and potentially attractive career alternative, offering the flexibility, variety and financial independence that these professionals seek.